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The stateís first execution since 2007 is scheduled for Monday night.

South Dakota State Penitentiary Warden Doug Weber announced Friday that 50-year-old Eric Donald Robert will be put to death by lethal injection at 10 p.m. that evening.

By statute, the sentencing judge sets the execution week for a death row inmate, and the warden announces the exact date and time within 48 hours of the execution.

Robert asked for and received a death sentence last fall for his role in the escape attempt that began with the murder of corrections officer Ronald ďRJĒ Johnson on April 12, 2011.

His lawyer, Mark Kadi, said Friday that his client is calm and reflective and has been meeting with family as he prepares for his final hours.

ďIíve been meeting with him all week, and heís shown no signs of changing his mind,Ē Kadi said.

No members of Robertís family will be in attendance Monday, he said.

Robertís co-defendant, 50-year-old Rodney Berget, also was given a death sentence for the murder, which was part of an escape attempt by the two inmates last April, on Johnsonís 63rd birthday.

Berget and Robert beat Johnson to death with a metal pipe and wrapped his head in plastic that day, after which Robert put on Johnsonís uniform and Berget hid in a box on a wheeled cart. They were apprehended at the prisonís west gate as Robert attempted to push the cart out of the facility.

Robert pleaded guilty in September 2011 and was sentenced to die by Judge Brad Zell after he found that the murder fit with at least two aggravating factors justifying a death sentence: Robert had killed a law enforcement officer and was lawfully incarcerated at the time of the killing.

The last person executed in the state was Elijah Page, put to death in 2007 for the 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage in Spearfish Canyon. Before that, the last execution was in 1947, when the state put George Sitts to death.

Death penalty foes

Opponents of capital punishment will make their voice on the issue heard next week.

The South Dakota Peace and Justice Center will host a prayer vigil Monday night at 8 p.m.

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Mark Sanderson, a spokesman for the Peace and Justice Center, said Friday that the group will meet and pray in opposition to the death penalty on the penitentiary grounds on the evening of the execution.

ďWeíre a group of people who do not affirm our stateís policy that taking human life is justified,Ē Sanderson said.

On Thursday, Bishop Paul Swain of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls and Bishop Robert Gruss of the Diocese of Rapid City issued a statement outlining the churchís opposition to capital punishment. On Friday, Swain said the purpose of the statement was not only to articulate the churchís position but to encourage discussion on the morality of the issue.

In 2007, Swain said, with the execution of Elijah Page, there was serious dialogue about whether it is proper for the state to end a human life.

ďThis time around, thereís very little questioning about whether or not we ought to be doing it, itís more about the mechanics,Ē Swain said.

Swift penalty

Robertís execution, coming less than two years after the crime, is proceeding in a uniquely rapid fashion.

Robert did not appeal his sentence, but the decision did survive an automatic review by the state Supreme Court. The next person scheduled for execution, Donald Moeller, fought through appeals for 22 years before admitting to the rape and murder of Becky OíConnell this summer.

Bergetís appeal to the stateís high court is under review.

Some of the questions raised in Bergetís appeal related to the appropriateness of a death sentence for Johnsonís murder.

The court has yet to rule on Bergetís appeal, but a spokeswoman for Attorney General Marty Jackley said Thursday that Robertís execution would not be delayed to await a decision in his co-defendantís case.

ďEric Robertís conviction is final, and his death sentence has been affirmed. The outcome of the Berget appeal does not in any way call into question Robertís conviction or sentence,Ē Sara Rabern wrote in an email.

A third inmate, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender named Michael Nordman, was given a life sentence for providing Berget and Robert with the pipe and plastic wrap used in the murder. Nordman already was serving a life sentence for first-degree rape, but he lost his prison job and now lives in high-security segregation within the penitentiary.